The life history of Plasmodiophora brassicae Woron

Abstract

Resting spore germination and the root hair stages of the life history of Plasmodiophora brassicae were studied in stained preparations of infected Brassica rapa seedling roots. Naked protoplasts, usually possessing two unequal flagella, were released from resting spores through a small circular pore. They penetrated the root hairs of B. rapa and there developed into plasmodia which, after becoming multinucleate, cleaved to form zoosporangia con­taining incipient zoospores. Biflagellate zoospores were released from root hair zoosporangia and fused in pairs, although karyogamy did not occur. The resulting binucleate zoospores infected the cortical dells of B. rapa to form binucleate plasmodia, the earliest stages of the secondary phase of the life history. These findings are discussed in relation to previous studies on the life history of P. brassicae in Brassica plants and in Brassica tissue cultures, and a new complete life history, including nuclear fusion in the secondary plasmodium, is suggested for the organism.